It's no secret that James Hetfield didn't feel entirely comfortable fronting Metallica during the band's formative years.
Famously, before recording Kill 'Em All, their 1983 debut album, Hetfield and Lars Ulrich asked their new manager, and Megaforce Records label boss Jon Zazula (aka Jonny Z) to sound out Armored Saint frontman John Bush to see if he might be interested in becoming their lead singer, but the Los Angeles-born vocalist politely declined the offer. Prior to that, the group had rehearsed a couple of times with Sammy DeJohn from local band Ruthless on vocals, and - at least according to an interview he gave to Metal Forces magazine in 1985 - even briefly viewed Dave Mustaine as an option: "I was singing along to to one of our tapes," Mustaine recalled, "and Lars said, 'Man, fuck, you'd be a great frontman, have you ever thought about singing?' and this kinda shit. I said, Yeah, maybe, but that's about as far as it went."
By the end of 1983, however, having raised their game with the recruitment of Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett, Metallica had also elevated their songwriting: on Halloween 1983, the quartet played a gig at The Keystone club in Palo Alto at which four new songs - Fight Fire with Fire, Ride The Lightning, Call of Ktulu (then titled When Hell Freezes Over), and Creeping Death - were debuted, all four songs illustrating that the band were fast outgrowing their original template. Once again, Hetfield and Ulrich felt that their best interests might be served by allowing Hetfield to focus on his guitar playing, and recruiting a 'proper' frontman.
